3. Ville Leino, six years, $27 million: The season before he signed his monster deal with the Sabres, Leino scored 19 goals and made $825,000. A season later, he scored eight goals and made $6 million. Sure, he had promise, which was shown in a record 2010 playoffs with the Flyers, but there was little else in Leino’s past performances to indicate he was worth that kind of money and term.

9. Tyler Myers, seven years, $38.5 million: The annual cap hit of Myers’ contract isn’t so bad -- $5.5 million -- but why did the Sabres give him a $10 million signing bonus for the first year? Was it really that hard for him to sign the contract? It makes the first season of his deal -- which is, symbolically, the locked-out 2012-13 season -- worth $12 million, third-highest salary in the league. And we’re pretty sure that unless you live in Cheektowaga, you’ve never heard of Tyler Myers.

I disagree with the article. Myers is very popular in Buffalo and loved by all of his fans. I am in Buffalo, followed his career pre-NHL, has scored numerous game winning goals for us. As for Leino, he was def not existant last year, I guess we will see what his future holds.

Currently overseeing coverage of the NHL and tennis on ESPN.com. This involves coordination of content with all platforms of ESPN: TV, radio/audio, magazine, fantasy, etc.
Previously, oversaw the operations of ESPN.com's General Sports, which included but were not limited to: NASCAR, golf, U.S. soccer, tennis, boxing, MMA, horse racing.

When you factor in that Leino only had one good year his entire life by the time he was 28, and that the Sabres signed him to play a position he didn't even play, the Leino contract is the worst in the league by far. There is no logical explanation for the Leino contract.

And this is why ESPN should leave hockey alone and stick to sports that they actually know things about.
Myers' contract isn't even the 2nd worst on the team, let alone anywhere near Leino's or even in the top 50 worst contracts league wide.

When you factor in that Leino only had one good year his entire life by the time he was 28, and that the Sabres signed him to play a position he didn't even play, the Leino contract is the worst in the league by far. There is no logical explanation for the Leino contract.

Um, no.

Furthermore, AT THE TIME of the signing, let me repeat this for you so maybe there's a bigger chance it sinks in.... AT THE TIME of the signing, there was sound logic (albeit risky but not illogical) to signing a player who had a good season and a real good playoffs to a longer contract, especially since the Sabres were competing with other clubs trying to get him. In addition to that he was the second most attractive forward behind Brad Richards.

Again, for a third time ... AT THE TIME it wasn't a terrible free agent signing.

In hindsight, so far with 1/6th of his contract played, yes, the Leino signing isn't a very good one. 5/6ths still need to be played for a better educated opinion.

As has been said before, Myers' deal is a great one. He doesn't bother to factor in that Pegula doesn't care about the bonus, or that it allows us to keep the cap hit down, or that it locks up the best young defender we've had in years for most of his prime.

EDIT: I just went and looked at all the comments under the article...I love how everyone is ripping ESPN and the writer a new one for putting Myers on the list...

I like the "You know literally nothing about hockey if you think Tyler Myers has one of the worst contracts in the NHL or that nobody outside of Buffalo has heard of the Calder-winning 22-year-old 6' 8" defenceman"

and the"And we’re pretty sure that unless you live in Cheektowaga, you’ve never heard of Tyler Myers."

Yup nobody has ever heard of the Sabres first line Calder winning defenseman.

Wow......Pretty sure the Myers comment isn't true....Pretty much everyone knows who Myers is. Ask pretty much any hockey fan what player on this team they would aquire in a trade if they could, and I bet the majority answer Tyler Myers. As for the bonus, its very likely that Pegula pretty much said, "Give the kid a bonus I'm a big fan of his". More likely it was there to keep the cap hit down, and either way its a reasonable contract.....won't argue with Leinos though.

Furthermore, AT THE TIME of the signing, let me repeat this for you so maybe there's a bigger chance it sinks in.... AT THE TIME of the signing, there was sound logic (albeit risky but not illogical) to signing a player who had a good season and a real good playoffs to a longer contract, especially since the Sabres were competing with other clubs trying to get him. In addition to that he was the second most attractive forward behind Brad Richards.

Again, for a third time ... AT THE TIME it wasn't a terrible free agent signing.

In hindsight, so far with 1/6th of his contract played, yes, the Leino signing isn't a very good one. 5/6ths still need to be played for a better educated opinion.

AT THE TIME, he did not play center and he was signed to play center. AT THE TIME, he was 28 years old and had only had one productive season. AT THE TIME, the signing was ********. I assume you were also a huge fan of Toronto signing Jeff Finger too? The Sabres basically signed Jeff Finger, but they signed Jeff Finger to play goalie, gave him even more money, and signed him for twice as long.

Myers... the writer agrees the cap hit is good but thinks the money balancing makes the contract awful? I'm sure part of the draw of front-loading with bonuses like that is the time value of money draw. Perhaps he took 100k less a year on that basis, who knows.

As far as no one outside of Cheektowaga knowing who Tyler Myers is... I mean, just go home. You're done.

You're right, but from 2002 - 2007 he played both center and wing for Ilves Tampere and HPK Hameenlinna so he absolutely had a history of playing center before. So AT THE TIME it wasn't an odd or stupid thought that he could do it in Buffalo. And JJ (I think) has proven the signing came first, .... THEN Leino mentioned about playing center AFTER he was already signed. There was a big thread on this months ago, I just can't find the thread right now.

Quote:

AT THE TIME, he was 28 years old and had only had one productive season. AT THE TIME, the signing was ********.

He was plenty productive in a few seasons in Finland, and one in Philly. The second sentence is pure opinion and not grounded in fact. Hindsight emotional retort.

Quote:

I assume you were also a huge fan of Toronto signing Jeff Finger too? The Sabres basically signed Jeff Finger, but they signed Jeff Finger to play goalie, gave him even more money, and signed him for twice as long.

You shouldn't assume.

AT THE TIME, it was a free agent signing of the second most highly sought after forward on the market.

9. Tyler Myers, seven years, $38.5 million: The annual cap hit of Myers’ contract isn’t so bad -- $5.5 million -- but why did the Sabres give him a $10 million signing bonus for the first year? Was it really that hard for him to sign the contract? It makes the first season of his deal -- which is, symbolically, the locked-out 2012-13 season -- worth $12 million, third-highest salary in the league. And we’re pretty sure that unless you WORK OUTSIDE OF ESPN, you’ve never heard of Tyler Myers.

Fixed.

Seriously, why do people (fans and media) keep bringing up bad contracts AFTER they've been signed? Nothing can be done with these contracts, Unless they allow teams to buy out contracts or void them without being penalized.

Just live with the fact your GM made a questionable move and hope they learned from it, and move on.